This has been quite a busy year, largely due to the formation of The Otaku Network Podcast. I haven't been able to watch as much anime as I wanted to watch this year, but its been a pretty solid year regardless. It's been a banner year for slice of life romance, especially with the Summer season bursting with quality titles. Here's a look at what I thought were the best series being released this year with my top 10 favorite series at the end of the list, otherwise everything else is alphabetical order.
In a year full of slice of life romances, this was the rare adult centered story. It dealt with two socially awkward people in their 20's pretending to be engaged in order to avoid a dramatic work transfer. The series was easy going on quint and lacked only a small amount of realism.
A high school romance about a girl who is unsure about her own worth and a boy that becomes obsessively attached to her. At times the male lead is problematic with how single minded he is about pleasing the main character, going quite fa to change himself to meet his vision of her ideal partner. In the end the red flags receded but it was still a bit...concerning.
A reverse-isekai comedy about a princess escaping death into the real world and taking up residence with a down to earth private detective. Partially a commentary on modern Japan and partially a tourism pitch for Gifu, this shared some vibes with Hinamatsuri.
Another romance featuring adults but its school setting and realistically coming of age narrative doesn't make it feel different from a high school romance. The story deals with a college student who is deaf and has lived a rather sheltered life, falling for a hansom worldly man. She learns about herself as she learns about the way he sees the world.
A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School
A scatterbrained comedy series about an inept and easily bullied human teacher who ends up being tricked into working at a school for yokai. This is a solid inclusion to anyone who loves gag series and is going to continue to be enjoyed into the second cour of its run in 2025.
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian
A high school romance with a quirk of a premise that quickly falls to the side as the two main characters spend more time together. It quickly gets side tracked into being a story about political drama vis-a-vie the student council and it begins to loose its charm and enjoyment.
A historically inspired tale about a merchants daughter who ends up being forced to work at the grounds where the Emperors top 4 concubines reside. Her attempts to hide her intelligence fail when she continues to work at solving puzzles that crop up among all the social intrigue...also a eunuch appears to have romantic feelings for her.
ATRI: My Dear Memories
Based on a visual novel game that deals Japan after an apocalyptic amount of coastal flooding and a boy with a chip on his shoulder looking to find a solution for their dying village. Also...a series of potential romantic partners. I dropped this about half way through as it felt rigid and more like a play through of the game.
Bananya season 3
At long last the return of the short form and cute story of cats who are also banana's This series serves as more a world exploring facsimile ala David Attenborough but with Banayna exploring different banana-cat habitats and customs.
A continuation of the long running manga franchise about a bartender who is more wise than his age. This time the focus is on a group of hoteliers struggling to convince this incredible talented man to work for their hotel, so that he may imprint a lasting and positive impression on its visitors.
Blue Box
A sports based high school romance where the main character ends up living with his older crush so she doesn't have to leave the country with her parents and can continue working towards school sport excellence. He struggles with how he perceives him and whether he has the guts to open up his heart to her fearing she is wholly focused on her athletic life. She...really has no personality and is only a vessel for pleasant companionship. Suzuka is clunky and a bit ecchi but tells a bit more compelling of a story than this dreamy weirdness.
Bucchigiri
What do you get when a city is seemingly run by teenage gangs? A new comer who inadvertently taps into mystical powers of genies who gets caught up in the rivalry and fights to lose jhis virginity. This is a crazy and highly stylized homage to 'yankee' stories of yore. Fun and weird and under a lot of peoples radar unfortunately.
Once you hit 30 and are still a virgin, you become telepathic. Our main character, a newly telepathic office worker, suddenly learns another man he looks up to in the company has barely controlled emotions for him and struggles to understand if he's even able to reciprocate. Cute, sexy and fuin all around.
Having to suddenly change the way you have lived most of your life can be difficult and the two nely minted step siblings, who are the same age, try to approach their new living situation with professionalism and courtesy. But they are both teenagers and are full of emotions and inner dialogue that begin to make things complicated. Way more dramatic than romantic. It lacks all the presumes tropes and perversion that we have seen before in this situation. It ended up being a really mature and drawn out tale of self recognition and regret. Though it was quite sleep inducing at times.
Dead Dead Demons DeDeDeDe Destruction
The first anime adaptation of a manga by Asano Inio, this is a strange post apacolyptic sci-fi tale about trying to move on with your daily life following a strange and confusing alien invasion. Sadly...I have not watched all of it and the artwork does not feel like it comes close to matching Asano's amazing detail and style. But its great to see him finally get something adapted!
Delicious in Dungeon
Fantasy anime got noticeably different in 2024, Delicious in Dungeon took your standard D&D style dungeon crawling story and pivoted to an initial merging with a foodie story. As it progressed a more grounded narrative emerges. The series deftly combined humor and absurdity with danger and mystery...not unlike Made in Abyss.
Another example of subverting fantasy norms. This time we take a girl who is highly skilled defeating her towns eponymous dungeon to find her adventuring father. Instead she is approached by the organization that manages the dungeon and is hired as support staff. She goes from being adventurer to becoming part of the machinations of the adventuring experience. This was a really cute and fun flip on the dungeon crawling story that feels like we only got half of the story. I'm not holding out hope for a 2nd season but this first one was well worth the time.
When a legendary hitman has taken too many jobs his handlers decide to force him on vacation for a year, to let the heat die down. He has to pretend to be a normal human and also refrain from killing anyone in the time. The trouble is, the only people that can provide him with the discretion he needs are the yakuza and too many in their orbit are curious about this weird stranger and his beautiful 'sister'. Take Crying Freeman and make it funny and sometimes touching.
The second half of this new take on a fantasy setting begins to tarnish the quality and narration of the first half by wasting a lot of time in a boring chuunin exam arc. Hopefully when it returns eventually it will get back to telling its tender tale of lose, regret and the search for redemption.
Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again
A fantastical and heart warming tale of two live long partners suddenly getting restored to the vigor of their youth. They take the time to try and make up for the things they regret not being able to do in their long and eventful lives. Sweat, innocent and heart warming all around!
Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable
A boy from Tokyo fears he will be more of an outcast in rural Hokkaido than he was in the capital. That idea goes out the window and a confident gyaru in his class takes a liking to him and tries to spend as much time with him as she can. This could have been way more perverted and pathetic than it was, but the characters are rather honest and realistic in their mannerisms and interaction. It was enjoyable in the end.
Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night
A group of teenagers join up in a reckless plan to become a viral entertainment group but they are ultimately using their participation and skills to run away from their real struggles. This was an interesting and grounded story about growth and acceptance that unfortunately shared none of the qualities of cuteness and love that Princes Jellyfish had, but still not a bad story if vastly different ones.
Kaina and the Great Snow Sea
Yet another tale by Tsutomu Nihei set in a world as its nearing the end of human habitation. This time a boy is forced into a journey to help a desperate girl save her fathers lands from destruction by a powerful force...but with the world dying there's little point in the continuing squabbles. I have always enjoyed Nihei's tales of pointless human conflict as they face annihilation. He always seems to include some element of thermal death into the problems with the world around the desperate characters.
In a world were magical girls are assisted by technology and part of corporately structured organizations, a failed college grad finds an unlikely home with an upstart and eccentric company who begin to gain everyone's attention through their successful and unconventional methods. Its fun on some levels but there is such a deeper over all narrative that is barely gotten into for this first season. Hopefully that will become more prominent in the next season but probably won't be earth shatteringly original in context.
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio
An industry story about two high school girls who struggle to become successful voice actors and are thrust into a partnership that tests their own limitations and willpower. The show wasn't bad overall but it did have unneeded moments of sexuality between the two main characters that distracted from the plot and wasted time.
What does a general in the force that tries to invade earth and fights the sentai rangers do on his day off? Take in the sites of one of the biggest cities on earth and relax as much as possible. This is a silly comedy taking a peek behind the scenes of the lives of characters we normally only see in action scenarios as the mortal enemy of humanity finds he loves panda's more than anything and refuses to disrupt his carefully planned routines.
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A high school girl who is a reformed delinquent is forced to deal with a new student who also happens to be part deer. The deer girl is little more than an agent of chaos as the mythology she generates randomly envelopes everything around her. We had high hopes for this being a spiritual successor to Nichijou but in the end it ran out of steam half way through and could never capture the spirit we hoped for. There will be no hundred years of deer after all.
The tale of industry intrigue and intrigue gets really really meta when the story shifts to focusing on the production of a 2/5 play based on a popular shonen manga. Aqua is still searching for his identity for his father which has led him to being a part of the stage production. To make things weirder...this arc is getting its own 2.5 stage play in real life. Super meta...
A pretty believable work place story about a world where cats can choose to be a part of human societry and a group of them who run a small ramen shop. This was unexpectedly high quality all around, aside from the disjointed artwork. This is a really strong contender for an introduction to anime for people who are not familiar with the medium. And as a surprise, were getting a second season in 2025!!
An isekai where the MC finds himself living a new life as a lowly goblin but retains an ability fo gain the powers of what he eats from his previous life. Also...way too much sexual assault and harem action for anyone's tastes. This was a pointless tale of sex and level grinding that really didn't tell much of a story.
Rinkai
Niche sports anime never really find a place outside of Japan and this tale focusing on a group of young women entering the world of competitive track racing is no exception. Honestly, I only watched it because I love track racing myself.
A truly unique isekai that refuses to stick with one genre. The story of a depressed middle aged office worker who ends up adopting a bird that is the reincarnation of a powerful wizard who team up to create a successful inter world trading company. Then he gets wrapped up in a secretive governmental department full of espers when they think his magic skills are psychic abelites and he has to fight against super mutant terrorist. This story never holds still and is a hell of a ride from start to finish.
What started out as a one trick pony high school romance became a really emotional tale of 3 adolescents trying to find their place in the world around them and build up their own self love. Beautiful story with modern sensibilities that wraps up in 2025 with a theatrical movie.
The adaptation of a well loved mystery novel series that has amazing artwork and direction but lacks a lot of energy as its emotionless teenage detectives painstakingly go over their analysis methods to solve mostly mundane cases. I will however be watching the second season when it comes out in 2025.
Spice and Wolf remake
The highly praised tale of a traveling merchant falling in love with the human incarnation of an ageless wolf spirit. This is set in a pseudo medieval European backdrop and is way more about the minutia of mercantilism than it is about romance. I never ot around to watching the original anime and was actually rather bored with this remake of it...confused as to what people see in it and its predecessor.
Suicide Squad Isekai
Reimagine the tale of the Suicide Squad to make it so that their mission is to infiltrate an isekai and report back about the team sent in before them. I don't like isekai and I don't like super heroes, but Suicide Squad, at least the movies, were entertaining and this short weird series was pretty good too.
The story of two men who love each other and try to raise their child in the most loving of environments as they can but their positions in the world lead to nothing but tension and drama as they try to ignore their places in society and forge their own path. This was my introduction to the world of the omegaverse and I can say...i'm not a fan of the over all theme of that story setting. This anime however was incredibly boring and pointless...almost vanilla in its approach to whatever the hell it was trying to do.
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Years after the first season, Bam is a new man, reforged by the influence of a shadow terrorist organization, who seek to use his unique abilities to enact their revenge on the Tower its self. He and they have hidden his continued existence from everyone and his friends from before do not know he is alive. Bam can't seek them out as they are used as hostages to keep him in line so he plows forward, defeating every challenge laid before him as their grander schemes begin to unfold and the order of power becomes threatened. From reading the manhwa, I knew how different this story arc was from what came before and was happy to see it be animated. But those that have only seen the anime were thrown off by the drastic change in story telling and looked at it unfavorably. I hope we get more adaptations of the story as the really good stuff has yet to come in the story of Bam and his accension of the Tower.
A quirkly post apacloptic tale featuring a quartet of cute high school girls. This was more an exercise in exploring a variety of sci-fi themes as the over all story had little weight or merit. It was really all about the journey and not the end. But...it was still enjoyable and very visually entertaining.
A man struggles to move on from his wife's death a decade earlier until she arrives in the body of an elementary school girl. She sees that her family was unable to grow beyond their grief and does everything she can to give them hope in their life. She just hopes they can keep going if and when she returns back tot he land of the dead. This was surprisingly a really soldi mellow drama about regret. It could have been a terrible and problematic story about...emotions clouding judgement, but it was incredibly wholesome.
Uzumaki
The long awaited short series adaptation of the horror masters most well known manga. A crazed story about madness and humanities powerless will when faced with older and stronger things. Unfortunately the production went to shit and lost all credibility. It also served as a reminder that horror is almost impossible to pull off in both anime and manga.
VTuber Legend
When an upstart Vtuber forgets to shut off their feed one night and goes on a drunken binge of watching other online content creators while talking to the screen in an unhinged manner their popularity suddenly skyrockets. Then the story looses interest and repeatedly dives into the weeds about what being a content creator is like in a fictionalized setting. The show really could not stand on its own two legs after it blew its load in the first two episodes and wandered around aimlessly from episode to episode with no real goal in mind.
A girl becomes infatuated with the performance of an upper classman that turns into misunderstanding and eventually love but then she becomes wrapped up in the older girls peer drama and we devolve into a battel of the bands. The series had a hard time trying to stay focused on the production side and the final wo episodes didn't play until the end of the year!
The grand daughter of one clan is given to the grandson of another clan as a potential partner. The boy is uninterested and abusive at first but when she doesn't roll over and proves she is a strong individual he suddenly becomes very interested. She is only hereere out of duty for the time being and suspects he will kill her if he looses interest. Honestly, this is a rather terrible series with bad artwork, over the top personalities and a very self abusive story line.
And now, here are the 10 best anime that came out this year that I watched.
#10 - Laid Back Camp season 3
The return of one of the best iyashikei out there. This season actually had a few multi episode story lines that made for better viewer investment. Season 4 is in the works...so we will eventually get more of this lovely cozy series.
#9 How I Attended an All Guys Mixer
Three guys in college get invited to a mixer only to find three drag kings waiting for them. What transpires from there is a sweet and humorous pairing between the three guys and the strong willed women who work as kings in a bar. This was a great series to finish the year off with and get me in a great mood for the new year!
#8 - The Fire Hunter
In a world where humans can no longer be near fire for fear of instant combustion super natural forces are plotting their demise. A young girl is forced into leaving the safety of her village to repay a debt to a man who died protecting her. She ends up getting involved in a larger plot by unexpected allies that threaten to unseat the people in control of humanity. This is a very interesting and stylistically fantastic tale that reminded me a little bit of From the New World. I don't think it was on a lot of peoples attention but told a far more compelling story that those top shows this season.
#7 - Astro Note
A man looking for a new job winds up being convinced to be the morning chef for a share house. The young woman who manages it is a large reason as he tries to know her better with hopes of dating. She on the other hand is a rogue intergalactic princess who is covertly looking for the key to claiming the throne of her people. This original series is pretty much a 12 episode remake of Maison Ikkoku splashing in some of the aesthetics of Urasei Yatsuro and it was a fun ride the entire time. An eccentric cast of characters with their own unique points of view and fantastic artwork. Well worth the time for any fan of romantic comedies based around adults.
#6 - Ranma 1/2 remake
Following up Usasei Yatsuro, Takahashi Rumiko's martial arts gender bending romantic comedy Ranma sees its own remake. Ranma is the heir to his fathers school of kenpo and lives his life dedicated to it. He is forced to become engaged to one of his fathers friend, who also runs a school dfor the same branch of kenpo, so that the school will remain strong for the next generation. Ranma however is cursed to turn into a girl when splashed with cold water and is forced to pick the youngest daughter, Akane, as his would be bride. Akane hates boys and refuses to accept her fathers foolish request, will continuing to train in kenpo and ignore the weirdo's suddenly surrounding her. This iconic and important series for the 2nd generation of American otaku is served very well by this remake that more closely follows the original manga. It makes me fall in love with this story all over again!
#5 - Love is Indivisible by Twins
A boy who grew up with twin sister neighbors struggles with his and their own growing emotions as they enter high school. All of them are incredibly smart and comfortable with the other but play a complicated game of cat and mouse with the boys heart as they try to figure out which of the two girls will be the victor in the battle for love. This was a very realistic portrayal of a complex adolscent relationship web in which the characters realistically engaged the others instead of falling into repetitive tropes. The artwork and character designs were less then ideal but the sheer strength of the characters and their portrayal outshined that downside to make this a really engaging romance.
#4 - Dan Da Dan
The anime of the year for many people, Science Saru rubbed their majesty all over this shifted tale of young love and the fight against aliens and vengeful spirits. The series subverts all expectation with each episode and brings a high quality production unmatched by many. Fluid movements, well immersed voice acting both work to propel a less than original story concept. After reading some of the manga, the anime does a far better job of delivering what would be a rote shonen story...but its just so goddamn entertaining!
#3 - Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
Set in 15th century Poland we follow a series of narrative characters as they work to understand the true nature of the cosmos and reject the churches strongly protected geocentric model of the universe. But these pioneering scientist and philosophers efforts must be kept in the shadows lest they attract the attention of the inquisition and forfeit their life to save their eternal soul. This is absolutely the best anime of the year. Incredible story telling with a realistic and mature set of characters and circumstances. It is pure historical drama at some of its finest. Absolutely fantastic series with amazing artwork to accompany the story.
#2 - Pseudo Harem
When a first year high school student becomes enamored with a quirky upper classman in her acting club she can't help but spend as much time with him as possible. The two grow closer as they endlessly flirt with each other, until the moment when they accept their strong emotions for the other. This is literally a perfect romance anime. There is no wasted time or space in the story. No unnecessary drama, no distractions, just purely nothing but flirting and love. There are barely any other characters!!! It does have one flaw and that's the final story line where they are trying to decide their future. They struggle over choice A and choice B without realizing that one will not eliminate the other. Otherwise...absolutely flawless and amazingly loveable story.
# 1 -Makeine; Too Many Loosing Heroines
Pseudo Harem may be A perfect romance anime, but Too Many Loosing Heroines told they most entertaining and beautifully animated story of the entire year. The story of a social recluse who would rather read light novels getting wrapped up with one girl after another as they fail in the game of adolescent love would be strong enough to carry this enjoyable story alone. But what really propelled this to the top of my list is the amazing life in the animation and direction. This anime breathes at every turn. It was amazing. Everything fit perfectly in place and a really fun story was told, one that we really don't see, as in the end, no one ends up in a relationship. Instead we get a weird group of unlikely friends who's future is shaped by a few months of uncomfortable growth in their high school lives. I really need to get the light novels even though it will be lacking the amazing animation, but these characters and their trials are so loveable I want to dive in again and hopefully further. Absolutely my favorite anime of the year.
Special mention: Look Back
The movie Look Back effected me in a bit of a profound way. The story was fascinating and well executed with the right level of the story left to suggestion and assumption. It pushed me to finally watch Chainsaw Man to see if there was some substance underneath the shonen flashiness...sadly there didn't seem to be any. It also pushed me to finally buy a copy of another one-story, Goodbye Eri. That story falls in-between the fantastic and deeper than expected story of Look Back and the routine of Chainsaw Man. I am unsure if I like Fujimoto as an author, I don't much care for him as an artist but I am definitely going to keep an eye out for future endeavors. Look Back was fantastic and highly recommended viewing...I need to buy the manga now.
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